The Visitors
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: April didn't know what had happened. Her friend 'Ichi' had somehow found out about the guys. Now she's calling splinter Sweet Whiskers, and the guys- his boys. And the guys are trying to figure out if she's a threat or not. Too bad Ichi is such a mystery. And a trouble magnet. Fem Ichigo/Turtles story.
1. Chapter 1

It was late one night during one of April's visits when the turtles and Splinter first heard of the one named Ichigo Kurosaki. Apparently April had been spacing out off and on and anxiously checking her cell phone from time to time before finally getting a text that almost had her vibrating in her seat from excitement.

This of course didn't go over looked by Splinter or the guys, who almost always tended to watch their human friends like they sometimes watched their TV programs. With undivided attention and unblinking stares. After all, if something unusual was going on with their human friends they liked to generally know every detail that they could wring from them.

They wouldn't be much of a adoptive family to their human's if they didn't make sure that they were okay at least _twenty_ or so times a day.

"Is everything alright April? You have been anxiously watching you're phone all night." Splinter asked curiously causing the woman to jump a little bit in her seat and then look at him wide eyed, almost as if she had temporarily forgotten where she was and just _who_ was present.

"Oh. Oh! no, no, no- Everything is fine just. I'm texting with an old friend. S-She mentioned something a week or so ago about maybe coming to town to visit since we didn't really get to see each other the last time I was out at the farm. Cause of the Foot attacking and all." April explained with a slightly embarrassed flush as Splinter twitched his whiskers and then gave her a small amused smile.

"You must miss you're friend quite a bit then."

"I do. And at the same time you guys keep me distracted enough to not miss her overly much."

"Have we been spending too much time with-" Leo started to ask when April let out a loud sounding animalistic growl than effectively startled him into silence as her phone started to ring.

April gave him a small glare and placed a finger to her lips for a second and then hit the green button on her cell and then pressed another and grinned as a husky sounding voice greeted her, "Hello angel. How are you this wonderfully rainy day?"

"Hello Ichi, I'm good. Sitting here with my other friends-"

"Oh! Sweet Whiskers and his boys?" Splinter blinked at the odd nickname. He'd never been called Sweet Whiskers before. And though the name was somewhat embarrassing to him, it was also pleasing as well. Mikey snorted as he clapped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from outright howling with laughter as Leo and Ralph flat out stared at the phone in horror.

"Yes, Sweet Whiskers and his boys," April confirmed with a barely suppressed laugh before asking, "Wanna say hi?"

"Hell yeah. Hey fella's, taking care to keep dry in this weather? Taking care of my gal pal? She's prone to really,_ really_ bad colds."

"That was one time-"

"I had to drag you're butt to the hospital because I found you unconscious, and suffering from a near one hundred and five degree fever. So while it may have been only _one_ time, my question is still valid."

"Ichi-" April growled out in a playful tone.

"_What?" _The other female said in a slightly defensive manner. "You can't take that tone with me! You'd be dead without me antique freak."

"Monster." April griped. The other merely huffed a soft laugh before April said, "So...are you going to be coming to the city?"

There was a groaning sound from the other end of the line before April asked, "What happened?"

"Two words. Widow Marsh."

"Uh-oh. So what did she do this time?"

"Well, she's been suffering from dementia lately and for some ungodly reason that I have yet to fathom, tends to think that I'm a demon every time she sees me. And has recently taken it upon herself to _burn_ me out of my home." There was the sound of sirens in the background.

"Please tell me that you're home isn't currently on fire Ichi." April asked in a slightly pleading tone.

"Alright, I won't tell you."

"Ichi!"

"Calm down April, the fire is contained. And my home is going to be_ fine_."

"Where are you right now? Waiting on the firemen?"

"Nah. I'm out in the frigging woods." Came the somewhat annoyed reply.

"What are you doing out there?"

"Hunting the fire happy widow. I'm worried that the damned woman is going to run off somewhere and wind up falling and injuring herself."

"And how is that going for you?"

"Better than expected, I think she forgot to cover her tracks this time."

"How long have you been tracking her?" April asked curiously as a small frown marred her face.

"Bout thirty minutes or so... _Christ_ that woman covers a lot of ground when she's fleeing in abject terror." April's friend muttered in an almost awed tone that had April reaching up to cover her mouth just to keep herself from laughing at her friend.

Splinter's lips were twitching as well while his sons continued to soak up the conversation between April and her friend out of curiosity.

From the sound of it, he could tell that April's other friend seemed to be a very eccentric, if somewhat oddly _lovable_ person. Knowing such people was an rarity in their world. Mainly due to the fact that they didn't do well in exceedingly_ violent_ life styles.

Finally after several heartbeats of silence Ichi asked, "Hey April, do you remember how we met?"

It seemed like a little bit of a strange question to them. But April merely smiled fondly. "It's a little hard to forget. You had just moved to town, at the age of thirteen. You're dad and two sisters were..." April's voice trailed off as her expression became sad.

"Yeah. And I wasn't doing so well."

"You were doing better than you realize. Not many thirteen year old's can graduate from high school with honors at such a young age, and start college courses in the middle of having to pack up and relocate after being orphaned. Plus you had gotten yourself legally emancipated, was left a small fortune, and used it_ really_ wisely to start your own art gallery and several businesses."

Ichi made a low humming sound. "I remember."

"So do I," April said gently. "You always excelled at everything you did."

"I remember you telling me afterwards that you had just come home from college to spend some time with your dad."

"Yeah, he wasn't doing too well because of the cancer. I had decided to take a semester or two off to take care of him. I had just gotten home that day," April's smile returned for a moment. "I remember getting out of my car and finding this strawberry blond-ish orange haired punk carrying groceries into the house for my dad. I didn't think much of you then." April said with a slight shrug.

"Really? I must not have left much of an impression if that's what you thought."

"Well, we didn't exactly speak. You carried the groceries in, my dad payed you, and then you waved at him and left. Which was why what happened later was so...peculiar. We were asleep in the house later that evening, I hadn't been feeling that great for the past few days prior and dad exhausted so easily..."

Ichi hummed again. "You were both asleep when someone broke in and barred both of your doors from the outside so that you wouldn't be able to escape. They cased the place and then turned on the gas in the kitchen and lit a match as they left."

"They were hoping that the house would explode." April snarled angrily.

"I'm aware."

"The house went up faster than expected. It was practically an inferno. I could hear my dad calling out form down the hall and tried to open my bedroom door. But I couldn't. I yelled and screamed for him to help me-"

Ichi swore softly and then muttered, "He heard you April, he just couldn't get out to help you."

"I-I know. It's just-"

"Raw."

"Yeah."

"That's understandable, kid."

"Anyways, I must have blacked out from the smoke. Dad had already fallen silent and I couldn't breathe..."

"I saw the fire and smoke from my place. My bedroom window always had a nice view of everything."

"I never asked how long it took you to get to us."

"Not long. Once I saw the flames and smoke I figured that something bad must have happened and didn't bother staying put. You guys live well over two miles from my place, and it took me less than ten minutes to reach you."

"You kicked in the door downstairs-"

"The heat and flames didn't bother me much."

"Ichi, you were barefoot. You're hair, arm, and skin burned. And not minor burns either. You suffered some second degree burns and some third and fourth degree burns. On you're face, you're palms, you're arm and shoulder and back. Even on the bottom of you're feet. You _had_ to have skin graphs! Those things are_ painful_! You're lucky that you didn't suffer any nerve damage."

"It wouldn't have mattered even if I did. You and you're dad were trapped and needed help. Besides, it isn't like I've never had nerve damage before. Those burns didn't so mush as phase me."

"I know, I've seen some of your other scars. Did I ever ask about those?"

"You did. But I don't like to talk about em." Ichi said in a low, soft tone.

"Don't tell me that you got them from a run in with some yakuza or something." April huffed out a laugh. Ichi didn't seem to care to dignify her comment with a response of any kind. Which had April's laughter abruptly dying and her eyes going wide as she snatched up her cell and all but shouted. "_Ichi!_ Do not tell me that you ran afoul of some yakuza!"

Ichi hummed and then said, "Okay, I won't tell you..." April sputtered as her friend went on to say, "By the way, the next time you have any trouble from the guys in the black PJ's, and don't bother pretending that you don't know what I'm talking about, _let me know_. It may have been a while since I really messed someone up- but if it's for you, Whisker's or his boys- I don't think I'd have much of a problem dropping a few bodies. Now I gotta go, I've finally cornered the menace. Tell Sweet Whisker's and the boys that I said 'bye'."

"Ichi-" April started to say something but the soft click from the other end of the line before it went dead was indication enough that the conversation was over as April just stared at the phone in her hand with a look of shock on her face before muttering, "What the hell?" As Splinter sighed.

It looked either as if April's friend was more than she seemed or they had just unwittingly learned that they had adopted another human. He wasn't sure if it was one, the other, or a combination of the latter.

Either way, he and his sons would be finding out.


	2. Chapter 2

April couldn't stop stuttering in shock.

She simply didn't know how to react to her friend Ichi practically announcing to them over the phone that she _knew_ about their existence. Not that it mattered all that much. As curious as Splinter and the guys were about _how_ she could have found out about them, they didn't exactly get the impression that Ichi had mentioned them out of anger or fear or any other sort of malicious feeling or thought.

In fact, if anything they got the sort of impression that Ichi didn't seem to care all that much that they were mutants. Or that weirdo's in black PJ's tended to run around and fight them.

If anything, her peculiar offer to assist them when it came to the Foot was...strangely _sweet_.

Despite the fact that they probably wouldn't ever take her up on it due to the fact that they didn't know her. Something that they had decided to remedy as quickly as they could in an effort to learn a little more about her and gauge whether or not she was in fact a _threat_ to them.

If so- they would find a way to deal with her. Hopefully peaceably given April's long standing attachment to her. Another reason that they were reluctant to deal with Ichi using any form of excessive force also had to do with her age. Something that they had learned from April when Splinter had asked her a few before.

Ichi's actual name was Ichigo. She was currently seventeen.

Just four years younger than the Leo, Raph, Don and Mikey. Which meant that she was still very much a child in the eyes of the law and themselves. Which meant that lethal force wasn't possible.

The turtles were a lot of things- ninja's, protectors, defender's of the innocent- but killers of children, simply wasn't one of those things.

If they couldn't reason with her. Then they would try to intimidate her instead.

Though they weren't all that sure how effective that method would be. Anyone who had their home set on fire by a little old lady suffering mental illness- and still went after said person- must have either nerves of steel or absolutely _no_ sense of self preservation whatsoever.

So that night after sending April home to sleep off the shock, Splinter and the others packed up some stuff and decided to head out to the country figuring that they would be gone for a week at least. And none of them wanted to be gone longer than absolutely necessary.

And since most of their stakeouts usually lasted about a week- it only stood to reasons that they would have some sort of answer to most of their concerns by then.

* * *

The trip out to the country took the better part of the night. Making placing their arrival time between the early morning hours, between four am and five thirty am.

However upon reaching April's childhood home, the guys promptly jumped out of the battle shell, and began to unload the van and settle in for their week long stint away from home.

Once that was done, they spent two hours or so catching some sleep, and then upon waking ate a quick breakfast of granola bars, a cup or two of coffee, and whatever else they had managed to bring with them from home to assure that they didn't starve to death during the week.

However they hadn't been able to stock up before leaving. And likely wouldn't be able to stock up out here either due to the fact that their costumes were far too crude to hide their green, scaly skin from the intense scrutiny of the country folk.

They would have to use their food supplies sparingly.

Though Mikey did mention that maybe they could find a farm close by with a fruit and vegetable garden that they could hit up for some extra food supplies. After which Don mentioned some wild berry plants that grew around April's childhood home, that they could also make use of.

Once Leo agreed to both plans to get some extra food stuffs, the four decided to scope out the area and see if they could find April's friend so that they could get down to business.

* * *

Ichigo had gone into town as soon as she had rolled out of bed to stock up on groceries and some new art supplies. Currently she was sitting inside of a small diner that she tended to frequent, munching on what was left of her early bird special.

She'd had a funny dream the night before where April's big green friends had decided to stop by for a spell and visit. She didn't exactly know why. But she knew that it gave her a strange feeling.

Almost similar to the feeling that someone got when a person stepped over their grave.

She had woken up at four forty am with the odd feeling of something cold crawling down her spine. It wasn't exactly...pleasant. In fact, to Ichigo, such feelings were far more useful as warnings for things like Hollows and such.

However even though it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling, she also felt oddly..._warm_ whenever she mentally went over the dream in her mind.

Popping the last bite of bacon in her mouth, she glanced down at her wrist watch to check the time while she slowly chewed and frowned at her watch. Either the damned thing was busted again, or something was going to happen in the near future at six fifteen.

Tapping the glass with her fingernail, she took a moment to hold it up to her ear to see if she could hear it making any sort of noise and made a low growling sound as her waitress walked up with her check and blinked at her before asking in a friendly manner, "Is your watch busted again, Ichi?"

Ichigo's eyes flickered to the woman's face for a second as she reluctantly dropped her arm back to the table and nodded curtly. "Yeah, looks like." She said in a slightly sullen tone eliciting a soft laugh from the woman.

"Oh hon, you have such terrible luck with watches and clocks don't you?" Ichigo didn't bother dignifying the woman's teasing question with a response since the woman was right. It was embarrassing to admit to anyone in town just how often she was having to replace her watches and clocks due to the damned things either breaking, or flat out being destroyed, or because they simply stopped functioning for one reason or another.

Not that everyone and their cousin didn't somehow find that fact interesting enough to gossip about. In fact her weird trouble with watches and clocks had been always been speculated/gossiped about. She supposed since people didn't know her well enough to laugh about something more interesting about.

But whatever.

She'd figure out what time it was once she left.

"Was you're breakfast good, Ichi?" The woman asked, just like she always did as she started to dig out her wallet. Ichigo gave her a small smile and ran her tongue over her teeth like she always did when she was asked such questions. And then handed her waitress a ten telling her to keep the change as a tip, as she got up off of her stool and waved to the woman as she headed towards the door.

Once outside, she tipped her head back and looked up at the sky, to gauge the time since she couldn't rely on her wrist watch, again. And figured the time to be between seven thirty and eight. Which was perfect since that meant that the craft shops and grocery stores were now open.

She figured that she'd hit up the craft shops and see if she could find a little bit of everything for painting, sketching, doing some floral arrangements, and making some scented candles, lotions, bath bombs and such. She had been hired to do a few commission pieces that she needed to send out within the next two weeks.

Plus she had some new stuff that she wanted to add to her art galley too.

After she was done getting her supplies, the time was slowly approaching ten. Quickly shoving her art supplies in the back of her car, she was careful to arrange them from breakable (like jars, and vases) to least breakable (her paints, brushes, canvases, lotion bases, scented oils, bath bomb and candle making supplies, her many, many, _many_ bags of multi colored silk flowers, wire cutters, gardening tape) ect. and then firmly closed the door and locked it before then heading towards the nearest grocery store.

She supposed that she should maybe get some extra stuff for the green guys.

Maybe some nice frozen stuff, coffee, a few herbal teas, sugar, honey, sandwich meats, cheese, soup, bread, butter, veggies, meats and some nice fruits since she wasn't all that sure what they ate, she figured that she would simply cover everything.

Walking into the store, she grabbed a buggy and started for the nearest isle with a weirdly determined look on her face. She would give them food, or die trying!


	3. Chapter 3

It was well after noon before Ichigo finally finished up her business in town and started for home. However upon deciding to head to April's place first to drop off the stuff that she got for her...visitors? had her turning her car down the lonely gravel driveway leading up to April's farmhouse.

She knew that no one was there the moment that she pulled up behind the oddly impressive looking turtle themed yellow, green and brown van.

Which was fine.

She didn't necessarily need anyone to be there to let her in. Not when she had her own key and could let herself in whenever she was over. It wasn't as if it was much of a hassle or anything. If it had been, she doubted that April would have bothered to give her a copy of her key.

Slipping out of her vehicle, she turned and moved to gather up the stuff that she had bought for the...guys. After which she carried everything up to the porch and carefully set everything down at her feet before digging out her key before pausing for a moment and with a small frown, gripped the knob and turned it.

The door opened and her frown quickly turned into a displeased scowl.

She understood that this was basically the boonies and all. And everyone knew everyone else and was friendly and neighborly and all- but that in _no way_ at all meant that anyone should ever leave their doors unlocked. For all the good things a person could expect from the country, people should know to expect dangers that one usually didn't face in the cities.

It was rare to have thugs, robbers, rapists, arsonists and murderers out this far from the city.

But it _did_ occasionally happen due to the fact that no one would suspect such monsters to integrate themselves among the people of such a small town community. It was somewhat easier for such people to hide themselves in plain sight as long as they kept to themselves.

In the past four years since moving out here, Ichigo had caught several such people. Some of which had been fairly incompitent. But she'd come across one or two- rapists and murderers alike- that had been far too intellegent for her liking.

So far there were still at least three that lived close to town and tended to use it to hunt for victims. Ichigo did what she could to stop them, but the number of victims was steadily growing more and more.

To date, thirteen children had been murdered. Which was thirteen more than she was comfortable with. And at least nine rape victims. Again, it was more than she was comfortable with.

She wasn't used to failure.

And tended to take learning of each new victim much _harder_ than usual due partially to her protective nature, and partially to the fact that she was visited on occasion by the spirits of the dead and knew of the pain and suffering that they had felt before their lives were snuffed out. And on occasion, she was asked by the spirit of a departed parent, friend, or sibling to check on the rape victims.

She did what she could for them. Really she did.

She found the murderer's dumping ground with the unmarked graves of the children. And though she hadn't been able to remove their bodies without tainting the evidence present, she had marked the area where they were buried and reported it to the local authorities.

And as for the rape victims...she didn't know what to do for them. With the exception of spending some of her late nights hanging out with them when they called her scared, and making sure that they were alright- or rather as alright as they could be after having been violated.

She also gave them someone to talk too who wouldn't judge them and make them feel unwelcome. She had also taken to consoling not just them, but their distraught families and friends as well.

And on occasion if it was absolutely needed, she had their families send the girls over to her place for a weekend where she spent half of her time working on their self esteem and overall mental health, and teaching them how to defend against the possibility of future attacks.

She was rather proud of her 'students'.

Especially since two of the girls had been jumped a month back and cleaned the clocks of the dumbasses responsible for making them relive the initial attacks on them.

Making a mental note to write the guys something about how they should really lock the door from now on before they leave, she reached down and grabbed the bags and then slowly made her way inside, using a foot to gently kick the door closed behind her.

Walking towards the kitchen, she set the bags on the counter and then started to put everything away when she felt the slightly familiar four energy signatures of the green guys, moving towards the house at a somewhat brisk pace and huffed softly.

She hadn't intended to stay out so long that they would return so soon. But she supposed that they were probably heading back to take a short break from whatever.

Which meant that she would be meeting them face to face far sooner than she had expected.

Not that there was anything wrong with that. Hell she wasn't even nervous. She just...didn't want them to assume the worst once they finally reached the house and found her. That's all.

Setting the coffee on the counter, next to the several boxes of herbal tea blends, she wondered how she could greet them. Somehow she doubted that they would appreciate the same kind of greeting that she tended to give April when she saw her.

Probably because they themselves were also warriors. And tackling a warrior, even in greeting, was considered a huge _no-no_. Mainly because of the highly _volatile_ and _violent_ way that they could and usually would react.

It had taken Ichigo the better part of a year to train herself not to throw punches when someone simply came up behind her and slipped an arm around her shoulders in a friendly manner. And she had gone through a _long_ trial and error phase where she had accidentally injured several townspeople.

Granted that she hadn't injured them irreparably. But she was aware of that the risk had been there just the same.

Hearing voices outside, she looked around the kitchen for a moment- wondering idly if she should _remove_ a few of the sharper and more pointy items lest they could be used against her. But after a moment or so of weighing the pros and cons- before finally decided against it since the four might think that she was...bringing them groceries and spontaneously randomly stealing silverware too?

Okay that didn't make any sense to her. And hopefully the guys would know better, but...she couldn't help but feel a little bit concerned as the front door opened and the green guys walked inside.

"I'm telling you man, whoever that car belongs too couldn't have gotten far." One of them said. The guy with the orange mask. She stayed quiet knowing that it was only a matter of time before one or all of them noticed her. She was standing there listening to them go back and forth between, 'someone is here' and 'where could they be' before one of them turned to face the kitchen and then simply froze up as his eyes met hers.

She lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers at him, and his already wide eyes nearly popped right out of his head as a strained, panicky sound escaped his throat. Drawing the attention of the ones arguing.

Now all of them were frozen, just staring at her.

_Awesome_. She thought as the one in orange pointed at the bags and then her before demanding in a weirdly authoritative tone, "Is that food?"

She looked down for a second at the counter and then slowly nodded her head mutely. Unsure about what exactly to do or say here as he gave an overly exaggerated gasped and put a big, three fingered hand over his plastron. Right over where his heart was located, if she had to hazard a guess, and quickly scampered over to the counter and started to go through what was still in the bags.

"Oh my god guys! She brought us food! There's a little bit of everything in these. Thank you grocery fairy! Now we won't starve! There's sandwich meats, cheeses, butter, frozen foods, breads, soups, veggies, fruits, sugar, honey- She's like the _bestest_ grocery fairy ever!" He said excitedly as she eyed the other three warily before seeing Orange starting to move to come around to her side of the counter.

At the same time one of the others let out an impressive sounding _warning_ growl, causing her to slowly put her hands up where the others could see them. And then backed away from the guy until she was as far away from him as she could get before slowly dropping her hands back to her sides again as Growly demanded to know how she had got into the house.

"I have a key," She said simply before then tacking on in a chastising tone, "Plus you _really_ should lock the door before leaving the house."

This time it was Purple who responded by asking curiously, "You're April's friend Ichi, aren't you?"

Ichigo frowned a little bit at his use of the nickname that April had given her after they had become friends. But nodded anyways as Orange gasped again and suddenly popped up in her personal space before she could so much as blink. "You're Ichi?! April's buddy? Oh my god it's so nice to meet you!"

"Umm..."

"Oh! how did you know that we were here? Did April call you and tell you? How long have you been here? Oh! I know- you can stay and have lunch with us!"

"I-I have stuff in the car... P-Perishables..."

"No problem dudette, go on and sit and I'll take care of your perishables." Orange said as he grabbed her by the wrist and led her over to a chair and quickly, yet somehow shockingly pushed her into it gently and then bolted out the front door, leaving her alone with the other three.


	4. Chapter 4

"W-What the hell? What just happened?" She asked in a small, dismayed sounding tone.

"You were just invited to lunch." Growly said in a rough tone as he gave her a calculating look. Obviously unsure of what to make of her. She could empathize with him. She didn't exactly know what to make herself sometimes as Blue finally asked as if to confirm,

"So...You're Ichi?"

She cast him a peculiar look before muttering, "Yes."

"April was somewhat distressed last night after you ended your call so abruptly." Blue said carefully, as he watched her for any sign of negative thoughts. She just frowned for a moment before saying,

"I can imagine that she would have reacted poorly to a few things once our call was over."

"Like mentioning us?" Blue asked curiously.

She nodded her head before simply muttering, "Among other things. Yeah." Blue just hummed as Growly suddenly asked,

"You aren't scared of us. Why aren't you scared?"

"Should I be?" She asked curiously, as she tipped her head back on her neck and glanced at the three of them though her eerie colored neon turquoise eyes.

"Most girls are."

"I'm...not exactly like most girls." She said gently as she turned her head back to it's original position.

"Ain't that the truth," Growly said, in a perplexed sounding tone as he studied her for a moment before getting elbowed sharply in the side by Blue. "Ow! What it's true." Growly said defensively as he absently rubbed the spot where he'd been hit.

"He's right Leo. She isn't like most girls..." Purple said as he also studied her. A small frown marring his features as his dark eyes looked her over from head to toe.

She imagined that she must look quite odd to them with her mullet styled wild, near waist length strawberry blond-ish orange colored hair, her fair complexion, exotically shaped eerie neon colored turquoise eyes, petite build, and almost six foot height.

"She hasn't run screaming from us yet that's _definitely_ different from most girls," Orange said as he reappeared with some of her bags. Looking over at her, he grinned and then said, "I've got your perishables. I'll just put them in the fridge until you're ready to leave, okay."

"Sure," She said awkwardly as he scampered by her and made a beeline for the kitchen as she subtly turned her head just enough to ask them, "Is he always like this?"

Blue grunted slightly before saying, "He likes you."

"Oh. T-That's nice. Isn't it?"

"Yes and no."

"Huh?"

"Yes, it's good that he likes you. But at the same time don't be terribly surprised if he tries to drag you home with us under the guise of 'mere friendship'. _Nothing_ with Mikey is that cut and dry." Purple said as Mikey? came bounding back into the living room where she was seated and flopped down in the floor at her feet and laid his head in her lap.

She wasn't sure who was more dismayed by his actions. Her or his friends.

Blue and Growly both visibly bristled. And Purple merely muttered something nearly inaudible under his breath as Blue finally hissed out from between clenched teeth, "Mikey, get off of her!"

"No, he's fine," Ichigo said as she reached out and put a hand on the top of his head, eliciting a loud purring sound from Mikey. "He's an empath isn't he?" She asked after a moment or so. Mikey tipped his head back and grinned at her. Not the least bit startled or shocked or even surprised that she had figured him out so quickly.

"H-How did you-" Blue stammered out, internally panicking. Mikey's empathic abilities were a closely guarded secret within the family. Only they, their master and April and Casey even knew about them. Mostly because they tended to let him feel people out to gauge threats to them.

If Mikey liked a person, he really _liked_ them and tended to get clingy and act like he was now. It was as if his ability tended to take over and overwrite any common sense he had.

He dropped his guard.

Left himself open, and vulnerable to any potential threat or attack.

Thank god he'd only acted like this around them, Splinter, April and Casey. Otherwise he would have been killed a long, _long_ time ago.

"Empathic abilities are a form of latent psychic ability. It's a lot like an unknown form of instinct. It helps a person know if someone is good or bad by letting the person with the ability_ literally_ feel what others are feeling or thinking. And in more extreme cases...it can even be used to _see_ into their stronger feelings. Plus I kind of know a few others from back home that are too. One of my former classmates, Orihime, is a severe empath. Everytime she comes to visit, she attaches herself to me like this and starts acting like an overly affectionate cat. It's...kind of cute really." Ichigo said as she gently petted Mikey's head, causing his purr to get louder.

"So things like this happen to you often?"

"Often enough." Ichigo said in an amused tone.

"Wait, wait, wait- You know some people with actual psychic abilities?" Purple asked as Ichigo nodded her head in response to his question.

"Well yeah, it's kind of hard not too. My late mom was a famous medium back in Japan. She worked with the police on cold cases, murders and such. And had a ninety nine point nine percent success rate. Before she was killed she managed to close over a thousand cold cases and helped bring over three hundred murderers to justice. And my dad even had some latent psychic abilities of his own. So me and my little sisters were born with some form of ability or another of our own."

"You're a psychic?" Purple squeaked at her before abruptly turning to the others and saying just loud enough for her to hear, "We need to learn more!"

Blue and Growly were both utterly silent as Purple turned to her again and started firing questions at her.

* * *

A little later, Ichigo sat at the dining room table across from the others while Mikey flitted around the kitchen cooking their lunch while the others all finally got around to introducing themselves.

Blue's name, surprisingly was Leonardo. But his friends and family called him Leo.

Growly, unsuprisingly, was named Raphael. And had the same protective temperament of the arch angel Raphael himself.

Purple, was named Donatello. Which was oddly nice. Though she had some trouble pin pointing why.

"So...um, now that we've all introduced ourselves, and Don has...finally finished interrogating you- Why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself." Leo said. Trying to remain subtle about some of the questions, learning of her psychic abilities may have raised in his mind.

"Alright. What exactly do you want to know?"

"Well...you mentioned your mom was a famous medium. I-Is that how you knew about us?"

"Yeah. Sort of."

"Okay, that's definitely not the weirdest thing that we've ever heard before. It would probably also account for how you aren't the least bit scared of us too. Huh?"

"A little bit, yeah."

"Okay. We can accept that. What about other stuff?"

"Like what?"

"Well, you look like you're a mix between American and Japanese."

"Oh that. My mom had mixed blood. And to my knowledge, I look a lot like her. We have the same hair color, fair skin and so on."

"You probably get you eye color from her too," Don said with a small smile. Ichigo visibly flinched, which didn't go unnoticed by the three at the table any more than it went unnoticed by Mikey in the kitchen. Don blinked at her for a second and then stammered out in a nervous tone, "D-Did I ask something wrong? Or offensive?"

"Oh...no it's not that," Ichigo said as he absently raised a hand to touch the corner of one of her eyes. "I wasn't born with these eyes. Before, I had warm golden amber eyes. These're actually from an eye transplant that took place about a year before my family died."

"O-Oh. I'm sorry." Don stuttered out.

Ichigo waved his apology off as Mikey left his post to come over and gave her a quick one armed hug. Startling her somewhat and whispered in her ear that it was okay for her to be upset, that they would understand, before leaving again to return to the kitchen before any of the food could start to burn.

"Thank you, Mikey." She called out, earning a small wave from him from over one of his shoulders.

"If you don't mind me asking, were you in an accident of some kind?" Leo asked, his curiosity getting the best of him. Ichigo opened her mouth to tell him that it was fine for him to ask. It wasn't like the memory of what had happened was particularly painful or anything. Just...depressing.

"I don't mind," She said as Mikey turned to pay attention to what she was saying, reaching out absently to turn the heat on the stove down for now. "I used to have a bunch of run in's with gangs and stuff when I was twelve. Some of which were yakuza. Mostly though, they were just small time thugs. However this time, one of my classmates fell in with some of the local big time yakuza gangs. Now, please don't judge him harshly. Gonju was actually a really nice kid. If a little bit rough around the edges."

"His family was in debt to the gang because of some poor choices on his father's part. And they were threatening to take his older sister and use her to work off the debt. So he decided to try and do something about it before things got that bad. He had just stolen several thousand dollars from an elderly couple in my old neighborhood. I happened to be passing by when he ran. I heard one of the couple yell that they had been robbed and dropped my school bag and started chasing him."

"I caught up to him easily enough, and he started to panic and picked up a broken glass bottle and tried to use it as a weapon. I didn't take the threat very seriously because I knew him. I'd known him for years. We were friends. So I didn't actually think that he'd really hurt me. He got a few lucky strikes in, nothing too bad. Just a few slashes here and there. And then when I finally managed to grab him, he flipped out on me and slashed at my face with the bottle..."

"He caught me in the eyes. The glass ripped my eyes apart. He freaked out even more when I staggered back screaming. And I guess he finally figured out that working with the yakuza wasn't worth the jail time of hurting someone or worse. He grabbed me and dragged me to the nearest hospital where it was confirmed that I was now blind. But because there was no damage to my optic nerves, I was viable for an eye transplant surgery."

"My dad was a well known doctor in the community who was really well connected with the local hospitals and such. So after he found me some new eyes, he went and visited Gonju and gave him a bag full of money from his savings account and told him that he could use it to save his family, as long as he came to the hospital and apologized for hurting me."

"Did he? Apologize, I mean."

"He did. He came by and got down on his knees and apologized for injuring me so badly and swore that he would never do it again. And I couldn't even find it in myself to be pissed at him for what had happened. Regardless of the betrayl and pain he had put me through."

"Why not?"

"Because he was desperate. His older sister was the only family that he had left. And if I had been in his place, I can't exactly say that I wouldn't have done the same thing. He was twelve after all. It wasn't as if he could go out and get a job. He had no education to speak of. Nothing that would get him anywhere. His choices were _beyond_ limited. And I knew that. What would be the point of being pissed at him for wanting to protect the only person that he had left that actually gave a damn about him?"

The three were silent for a moment as they mulled over her words before Don finally said, "There would be no point."

"Exactly."


	5. Chapter 5

Ichigo might have_ actually_ stayed for lunch to speak with April's green friends more- if her phone hadn't have started beeping in it's usual ominous manner. Politely excusing herself for a moment, she stood up and fished her cell out of her jeans pocket and flipped it open to see why it was beeping.

It could only be one of several things.

All of which weren't exactly good.

Eyeing the screen of her phone, she subconsciously tried to keep her expression carefully blank. But that was difficult to do when there was an amber alert lighting up the screen, with a pic of a seven year old boy- that she knew. Apparently some fucker had snuck into the kid's room while the mom was just downstairs, and grabbed him.

Which meant that little Tommy Sheffild would wind up either injured severely or dead and buried in a shallow grave somewhere for her to trip over.

Not on her fucking watch!

Pressing the green button, several times, she was able to pull up the rest of the info about the kidnapping just to make sure of things. His build and hair and eye color coupled with his age made him a perfect match for the guy that h ad been killing kids.

Which meant that he'd be at the dumping ground three miles from her present location within the next few minutes. If Tommy was to stand any sort of a chance at all of being returned to his parents alive- then she had to go _now_.

"What is it?" Mikey asked as he came up to stand at her shoulder, his blue eyes peering curiously at her phone before his expression changed.

"Amber Alert. Tommy Sheffild, age seven. Blond hair, blue eyes. Kidnapper snuck into his bedroom with his mother downstairs."

"How long ago?" Leo's voice chimed in this time.

"According to the amber alert, bout fifteen minutes or so. The mom reported him missing because he's sick and has a high fever."

"So he couldn't have wandered off on his own?"

She snorted as if amused and then said, "Not with_ that_ kind of temp he didn't."

"That sucks." Raph said.

"Yeah that does suck, but what worries me more is the person who took him..."

"How so?"

"I don't have time to explain right now. I need to go and help look for him," Ichigo said, trying hard to hide her anxiety from them. But Mikey's empathic gift was a mite stronger than she was used too and he somehow managed to pick up on what she was feeling easily enough. "Mind if I leave my perishables here for a bit?"

"You'll come back right?"

"Unless something unforeseen comes up then I should be back in a few hours."

"Okay." Mikey said before giving her a quick hug and then shooing her out the door before the others could say much of anything in protest.

Once she was outside, Ichigo took a moment to try and figure the easiest route to the dumping ground. Since it was just three miles away, running through the woods might be the best way to reach Tommy before the worst happened. And since she was a very fast runner, she could easily be there before the guy that took Tommy could do anything to the boy.

Deciding on the course of action that she would take, she took off through the thick foliage surrounding the O'Neil farm, unknowingly and accidentally catching the curious- if somewhat_ puzzled_\- attention from the four within the house.

"She didn't take the car." Ralph said in a baffled tone.

"Really? Why wouldn't she take her car?" Leo asked curiously.

"I dunno, she just...ran off into the woods." Raph said as he motioned towards the treeline bordering the property.

"Well, that is weird. Everyone know that cars can help cover more ground during searches like Amber Alerts." Don said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Unless she knows something and is going to check out someplace close to here..." Mikey said cryptically from the kitchen, causing all three of his brothers to look at him oddly as Leo asked,

"Did you pick up on something, Mikey?"

"Some stuff." He said with a slight shrug. Knowing very well that he shouldn't divulge too much information since it could get Ichigo into some sort of trouble, however was unable to help mentioning something to his brothers out of concern for her wellbeing.

"Should we be concerned?"

Mikey was silent for a moment before simply saying, "I would be."

_"Huh?"_ The three said unintelligibly before Leo asked,

"What do you mean Mikey?"

"Ichigo is afraid. Very afraid. Someone is going to get hurt- and she's trying to figure out a way to stop it," Mikey said as he turned the stove off and then turned to look at his brothers and saying. "I think we should go after her."


End file.
